“Essentially, what the T-Mobile has done is delivered the first consumers UMA platform using the same phone to make calls over a cellular network outside of the home and leveraging consumers WiFi and Broadband connections at home. To that end, there are two hardware components to T-Mobile’s offering. First is a phone that can work off of T-Mobiles Cell network and is also WiFi enabled to use GSM of over WiFi and a T-Mobile branded optimized router that gives priority to voice packets. While you don’t need T-Mobile’s router to use the service, it’s the recommended solution. On the phone side, you’ll need one of two new handsets T-Mobile is introducing, one from Nokia and one from Samsung. Regular WiFi enables phones or PDAs won’t work.” [Michael Gartenberg]
A tough week to launch a new mobile anything but T-Mobile is going live (sort of) with their UMA service… The site looks the same as it originally did and there’s no mention of the Nokia phone Michael Gartenberg mentions. I wonder if would be possible to activate true UMA service (auto switching) with software – like TruPhone Plus ?
I’ve used VOIP services on all of my WiFi enabled Nokia phones and both TruPhone and Gizmo let me choose the Internet Call option instead of cellular when I am in range of my AP at home (or work) but neither service seemlessly auto switches an active call between networks which is the real advantage to UMA.
I’ve been testing the service here in the Digital Domain for the last few weeks and i must say, it works and it works well. Places where I could never get a cell signal (like my home office) now work fully. Out and about, I had no problems connecting at T-Mobile’s Hotspots, getting into the car while on the same call and then going from car to home WiFi network. The call just stayed connected seamlessly which is as it should.
Technorati Tags:
Nokia, VOIP, UMA, T-Mobile, TruPhone, Gizmo Project
Problem with UMA phones is that the WiFi standard at UMA does not work with any already existing WiFi access points. So this is a CLOSED solution approach. In addition UMA is very slow and uses a lot of processor time in the phone. Meaning nothing else works. — I would stay away from any UMA phones and go with the long established standard of OpenWiFi.
No argument here – though I think it would work on the T-Mobile network of hotspots. I know and respect how you guys feel about T-Mo… 😉
I used UMA with the new Curve 8320 and the data portion works well. The voice portion has still some glitches. I use my own router (Linksys) and TWCable in NYC. Haven’t yet tried to hand-off from EDGE to WiFi UMA or vice versa (I think we need to suscribe to TMO@Home to get this hand-off feature).
Love to know how or if the handoff works… I can do VOIP on a number of handsets, but have no way to roam from my home to a cell if I want to keep on talking – unless I am connected through GrandCentral and then you can transfer the call